Christophe Maquet: “China, water, and Africa! “

In 2020, China will be the only major economy to show positive growth! Thanks to a return to normalcy deemed “faster than expected” by the International Monetary Fund, the Middle Kingdom has already shifted in the post-Covid period. This is the case in the country where the epidemic started: GDP is leaping at the same time as its market share in world trade is growing at an unprecedented speed.

China resolutely on the offensive …

Unperturbed, China has also been weaving its web for a long time far from its domestic market, where it is not expected. In Niger, for example, since 1974 and the establishment of its diplomatic relations with this country ranked last in the world in the Human Development Index by the United Nations Development Program, it has played a significant role in the oil sector. , energy or infrastructure, becoming the leading supplier to this country.

… settles in the heart of African life

In the water sector, this was reflected in 1989 by the construction, on the Niger River, of an artificial reservoir capable of initially storing 3 million m³ for the water supply of the capital Niamey. In 2007, a Chinese consortium allowed the extension of the Goudel drinking water treatment and production plant. Also in Niger, in Zinder, President Mahamadou Issoufou and the Chinese Ambassador launched in 2013 work to strengthen drinking water production facilities in the former capital and its surroundings thanks to a Chinese loan from about 20.5 billion CFA francs. ” Water is life ! »The Nigerien president told me recently. He’s right. Behind water and sanitation, there is health, hygiene, food, education, the environment, the climate. There is the economic and social development of African cities.

Its strike force: its many companies

Chinese companies have understood this well. They are the ones who will rehabilitate more than 300 water catchment stations in Cameroon. Again they who have just signed the contract for the construction of the Gourbassi dam on the Senegal River, a contract of 243 million euros. More than 10,000 Chinese companies operate on the continent to ensure its sustainable development and help its economies meet immense challenges. Because the emergence of leading Chinese players in the field of water and the environment is a reality, the Veolia Suez merger also “makes sense” in Africa.

To resist we have to unite

Now China, endowed with a considerable economic strike force and a leading political ambition, has become a key country in African geopolitics. Trying to stop it without joining all our forces is an almost impossible mission. To ignore it would be even more serious.

Faced with this growing competition, we have everything to gain by bringing together our activities and our talents on the continent. The latest UN report recalls that while access to drinking water is 94% assured in Europe and North America, it is only 24% in sub-Saharan Africa. This requires mobilization to protect the continent and its inhabitants In a global market where size is a capital asset, we will be in the best position to commit to Africa, in search of the maximum positive impact. As the African proverb says: “Alone, we go faster, together we go further!” ”